Our new e.p. 'Pestilence & Rapture' hit the streets in late September of 09', and was very well received by fans and peers alike! The song everyone seems to be buzzing about is "The Ardent Optimist," which happens to be a band favorite. The inspiration for this song came when my father, who's been in and out of my life since I was born, contacted me out of the blue. Every time it's the same story: he shows up, promises to stick around, I get excited, things seems great for a month or so, then just as swiftly as he was there......he's gone again. Something inside me snapped. Suddenly everything I've ever wanted to say to him, came bursting out of me like a pack of caged, ravenous wolves. TAO became my testimony of decades of pain and abandonment, my way of coping. At the same time, it mirrors as a symbol of my unwavering hope and faith that someday he will come to his senses and be the man he should have been my entire life.

Writing this song has allowed me to further accept that things happen the way they do for a purpose, and now I look upon the situation with new eyes. I can be positive and forgiving instead of resentful and loathsome, which feels so amazing. This is by far the deepest and most meaningful song we have written to date, and seems to be the song people relate to the most from the new e.p.

For all you MTV fans out there, TAO was part of the soundtrack for the recent season finale of The Ruins: Road Rules/Real World Challenge. Also, TAO is in current rotation on the Comcast Music Choice Metal Channel and AOL Radio. You can hear this song, as well as many others from Pestilence & Rapture, live at The Loch Ness MonsTour this February/March with Across The Sun and No Bragging Rights. Check out our Myspace for dates in your area, we love you all and we will see you in the pit!!!